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ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FOURTH  ANNUAL  COMMENCEMENT 

LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR   UNIVERSITY 

MAY   29,   1895 


SPECIALIZATION    IN   EDUCATION 

John  Maxson  Stillman 
Professor  of  Chemistry,  Leland  Stanford  Junior   University 


ADDRESS   TO   THE   GRADUATES 

David  Starr  Jordan 

President,  Leland  Stanford  Junior   University 


PAI.O    ALTO,    CALIFORNIA 

STANFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 
1895 


ADDRESSES  AT  THE  FOURTH  ANNUAL  COMMENCEMENT 

LELAND   STANFORD   JUNIOR   UNIVERSITY 

MAY   2i).    1895 


SPECIALIZATION    IN    EDUCATION 

John  Maxson  Stillman 
Professor  of  Chemistry,   Leland  Stanford  Junior   University 


ADDRESS   TO   THE   GRADUATES 

David  Starr  Jordan 
President,  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University 


PALO   ALTO,   CALIFORNIA 

STANFORD   UNIVERSITY   PRESS 
1895 


<yo 


SPECIALIZATION    IN    EDUCATION. 

John  Maxson  Stillman. 

Education,  in  the  somewhat  restricted  sense  in  which  we 
commonly  use  the  term,  is  the  systematic  effort  to  econo- 
mize and  to  augment  the  mental  and  moral  development  of 
the  individual.  It  attempts  to  equip  him  at  the  least  pos- 
sible cost  of  time  and  waste  of  energy,  with  the  most  impor- 
tant results  of  the  accumulated  thought  and  experience  of 
mankind.  Its  highest  aim  is  the  fitting  of  the  individual 
to  be  of  the  greatest  possible  service  to  the  race.  In  general 
it  is  also  true  that  the  man  fitted  to  be  of  greatest  service  to 
the  race,  is  also  best  fitted  to  improve  his  own  condition, 
and  to  increase  his  own  comfort  and  happiness.  A  system 
of  education  which  should  ignore  the  first  and  greater 
object  would  contain  the  seed  of  its  own  dissolution,  for  in 
the  long  run  society  is  banded  together  against  organized 
selfishness. 

In  former  ages,  systematic  education  was  designed  only 
for  the  priesthood.  Later  it  became  also  a  preparation  for 
the  other  so-called  learned  professions  —  law  and  medicine 
™-  and  a  distinguishing  badge,  an  accomplishment,  a  lux- 
ury for  the  sons  of  gentlemen.  The  "  educated  classes  " 
formed  a  caste,  and  often  a  narrow  and  a  jealous  caste. 
The  increase  and  wider  distribution  of  wealth  and  the  in- 
creasing demands  of  a  progressive  civilization,  have  tended 
to  break  down  the  barriers  hedging  an  educated  caste.  Step 
by  step  the  conviction  has  gained  ground  that  education  is 
the  right  of  the  many,  rather  than  the  privilege  of  the  few. 


295512 


4  Specialization  in  Education. 

Gradually  society  is  becoming  convinced  that  universal 
education,  and  a  generous  education,  is  one  of  the  few  good 
things  of  which  there  can  not  be  too  much,  and  the  best 
paying  investment  for  her  security  and  prosperity.  The 
immense  sums  expended  from  the  public  treasury,  or 
through  private  munificence,  for  educational  purposes,  are 
capital  which  society  has  invested  not  for  individual  benefit 
at  the  expense  of  others,  but  for  her  own  best  interests,  and 
we  may  depend  upon  it  that  in  the  end  she  will  see  to  it 
that  she  receives  the  full  interest  due,  in  terms  of  honest 
and  efficient  service  rendered  to  the  material  development 
or  the  social  welfare  of  humanity. 

It  is  evident  that  the  methods  and  materials  of  education 
must  vary  with  the  needs  of  the  time  and  the  ever-changing 
conditions  of  civilization.  The  best  education  that  could  be 
devised  in  the  seventeenth  century  differs  from  the  best 
that  the  nineteenth  has  developed,  and  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury will  bring  new  requirements.  To  a  certain  extent  the 
education  of  today  is  the  outgrowth  from  past  conditions 
and  past  needs.  On  the  other  hand,  the  best  education  of 
today  is  the  result  of  a  more  or  less  successful  effort  to  fore- 
cast the  conditions  and  requirements  of  the  future.  It  can 
not  be  otherwise.  The  youth  now  receiving  instruction  in 
thousands  of  class-rooms  in  the  United  States  are  prepar- 
ing for  a  life-work  in  the  future,  and,  in  so  far  as  may  be, 
their  training  has  been  shaped  to  meet  the  probable  condi- 
tions of  their  social  environment.  From  a  study  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  past  and  the  conditions  of  the  present  we  en- 
deavor to  discover  tendencies  of  human  thought  and  action 
which  will  be  influential  in  determining  the  conditions  of 
the  future.  The  more  clearly  these  tendencies  can  be  dis- 
cerned the  more  successfully  may  be  laid  the  foundation  of 
future  usefulness.  The  earnest  teacher  has  faith  in  a  pro- 
gressive development  of  human  society,  however  slow  it 
may  be,  and  also  in  the  possibility  through  education  of 
influencing  this  development.  If  he  has  not  this  faith, 
there  is  lacking  an  important  source  of  inspiration. 


Specialization  in  Education.  5 

The  problems,  then,  that  face  advanced  educators  today  are 
commensurate  in  their  importance  with  the  problems  which 
already  confront  our  civilization,  or  which  more  or  less 
distinctly  are  discerned  through  the  mists  which  veil  the 
future. 

The  century  now  nearing  its  close  has  been  a  period  of 
unexampled  material  and  industrial  progress,  and  I  believe 
also  of  social  and  political  improvement  as  well.  Though 
we  are  confronted  with  wholesale  corruption,  rascality,  and 
crime,  it  is  yet  reassuring  to  remember  that  they  are  gener- 
ally and  clearly  recognized  to  be  corruption,  rascality,  and 
crime,  and  not  called  honesty,  rectitude,  and  beneficence, 
even  by  the  most  corrupt  exponents  of  public  opinion. 

Many  causes  have  conspired  to  make  the  past  century 
thus  remarkable  in  its  development  :  rapid  methods  of 
transit,  rapid  and  cheap  intercommunication  of  ideas,  rail- 
roads, steamships,  telegraph  —  but  more  than  all.  the  in- 
crease of  education  and  the  consequent  emancipation  of 
thought  from  the  thraldom  of  old  philosophies  and  dead 
dogmas. 

The  impulse  arising  from  the  study  of  natural  and  phys- 
ical science  has  played  no  small  part  in  this  stimulation  of 
latent  human  possibilities.  Naturally  there  have  arisen 
from  the  changing  conditions  of  life  new  social,  political, 
and  industrial  problems,  making  necessary  a  more  varied 
and  different  educational  preparation.  The  great  variety  of 
schools  for  general  and  special  training,  and  the  diversity 
of  ideas  as  to  function  and  methods  of  education,  are  evi- 
dence of  the  attempt  to  suit  educational  methods  to  the 
various  needs  of  the  time. 

The  century  soon  to  be  ushered  in  will  doubtless  carry 
forward,  perhaps  still  more  rapidly,  the  industrial  and  ma- 
terial development  of  civilization.  Its  achievements  may 
be  greater  than  those  of  the  nineteenth  ;  but  it  would  be 
strange  if  the  future  century  were  not  beset  with  difficulties 
and  dangers  commensurate  with  the  magnificence  of  its 
promise  in  other  directions. 


6  Specialization  in  Education. 

I  am  no  pessimist.  I  do  not  believe  the  golden  age  of 
humanity  is  past,  that  society  is  going  from  bad  to  worse, 
and  social  anarchy  hovers  over  us,  sometime  to  engulf  the 
dissipated  remains  of  civilization.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand, 
am  I  ready  to  accept  that  now  at  last  we  stand  on  the 
shores  of  Utopia,  and  that  the  troubled  ages  of  war,  social 
tyranny,  and  enthroned  selfishness  are  about  to  give  place 
to  that  era  longed  for  by  poets  of  all  ages  — 

"  When  the  war-drum  throbs  no  longer 
And  the  battle-flags  are  furled 
In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world." 

Yet,  slowly  or  rapidly,  with  perhaps  many  a  pendulum 
swing  of  progression  and  retrogression,  we  must  and  do 
look  forward  to  a  gradual  improvement  in  social  condi- 
tions, in  political  wisdom,  in  honesty,  and  in  love  for  one's 
fellowmen.  And  it  is  to  education  that  we  must  look  to 
make  the  world  of  a  hundred  years  hence  a  little  better  on 
the  average  than  as  we  know  it  today.  The  problems  which 
are  to  confront  the  future  generations,  more  numerous  and 
more  difficult,  as  the  conditions  of  life  become  more  com- 
plex, must  be  met  by  a  more  general  education  of  the  people, 
and  by  education  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  social 
organism.  Problems  already  face  us  which  tax  to  the 
utmost  the  knowledge  and  ability  of  the  best  trained  ex- 
perts —  problems  affecting  the  mutual  relations  between 
nations,  international  law,  international  commerce,  or 
finance  ;  equally  difficult  questions  of  internal  administra- 
tion —  currency,  tariff,  taxation  ;  the  relation  of  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  individual ;  charities  and  correction  —  they 
need  not  be  further  enumerated,  we  all  recognize  them. 
Many  social  questions  once  simple  and  easily  regulated  be- 
come more  difficult  and  of  greater  import  through  the 
growing  complexity  of  the  social  machinery.  Thus  the 
centralization  of  capital  into  mammoth  corporations  or 
trusts,  with  the  power  that  springs  from  a  more  than  kingly 


Specialization   in   Education.  7 

wealth,  has  given  rise  to  questions  of  great  public  impor- 
tance—  questions  which  troubled  but  little  when  competi- 
tion was  freer  and  the  relations  of  supply  and  demand  less 
restricted.  The  State  has  found  itself  compelled  to  inter- 
fere to  protect  the  public  from  the  abuse  of  power  by- 
wealthy  corporations,  and  perhaps  no  task  before  us  is  of 
greater  importance  than  that  of  protecting  the  public  from 
such  organizations,  and  at  the  same  time  protecting  great 
business  enterprises  from  an  equally  unjust  and  tyrannous 
abuse  of  the  power  of  legislation.  Concentration  of  capital 
has  made  possible  organization  of  labor  for  its  own  protec- 
tion, and  here  again  a  giant  strength  is  aroused  which  pub- 
lic policy  must  control,  that  it  be  not  used  against  the 
rights  of  others,  nor  the  welfare  of  the  State. 

The  problems  of  civilization  are  becoming  more  intricate 
with  the  discover}'  of  new  fields  of  human  activity,  with 
the  increasing  development  of  older  professions  and  indus- 
tries, and  with  more  intimate  international  relations,  com- 
mercial, financial,  and  political.  Every  department  of 
human  thought  and  activity  feels  the  impulse  of  this  in- 
creasing complexity,  and  demands  in  consequence  more 
thorough  knowledge  and  greater  skill  to  deal  with  the 
changing  conditions. 

How  are  we  to  acquire  the  wisdom  and  ability  to  deal 
with  such  questions  on  the  basis  of  equity  and  honesty  and 
with  intelligent  understanding  of  the  factors  involved  in 
their  settlement  ?  Only,  I  am  convinced,  by  the  gradual 
elevation  of  the  people  to  a  higher  average  of  honesty  and 
intelligence,  and  further  than  that  by  the  thorough  special 
education  of  a  larger  number  of  men  to  act  as  leaders  of 
public  opinion  in  their  respective  branches  of  knowledge. 
The  greater  the  number  of  such  leaders,  the  more  thorough 
their  training,  and  the  more  varied  the  lines  of  thought  in 
which  such  leaders  exist,  the  more  rapid  and  free  from 
danger  will  be  the  march  of  progress.  When  knowledge, 
skill,  and  integrity  take  the  lead,  and  public  opinion  is  in- 
telligent enough  to  discriminate  between  the  voice  of  wis- 


8  Specialization  in  Education. 

dom  and  the  flattery  and  sophistry  of  the  demagogue,  then 
only  may  we  look  for  the  realization  of  a  reasonable  Utopia. 
Far  from  that  goal  as  we  now  are,  it  is  nevertheless  the  part 
of  practical  patriotism  and  humanity  to  strive  ever  toward 
it,  that  we  may  avoid  to  the  greatest  extent  possible  the 
wrong  solutions  of  those  ever-recurring  problems  of  society 
—  ever-recurring  because,  as  has  been  well  said,  if  a  ques- 
tion be  not  rightly  settled  it  always  comes  up  again  for 
settlement. 

Two  hundred  years  ago  any  man  of  ability  and  of  good 
schooling  for  the  time  might  readily  have  mastered  all  that 
was  then  known  about  steam  engineering.  Any  statesman 
of  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth  might  easily  have  learned 
all  that  existed  of  international  law.  How  much  greater 
the  preparation  now  required  to  master  those  branches  ! 
A  similar  increase  in  subject  matter  and  in  complexity  of 
relations,  and  a  corresponding  need  of  more  special  and 
more  thorough  training,  may  be  found  in  all  the  sciences 
and  their  applications,  in  mercantile  and  manufacturing 
business,  law,  medicine,  statecraft,  literature,  or  philosophy. 
Where  a  hundred  years  ago  a  fairly  good  preparatory  edu- 
cation and  some  natural  adaptability  to  the  subject  formed 
sufficient  foundation  to  enable  a  man  to  earn  a  front  rank 
in  his  profession,  today  the  man  without  thorough  special 
training  finds  himself  forced  to  take  a  subordinate  rank. 
There  is  an  increasing  tendency  to  subdivide  the  profes- 
sions and  occupations,  once  practiced  as  a  whole  —  or,  as 
we  say,  to  specialize.  The  lawyer  takes  up  the  practice  of 
corporation  law,  patent  law,  commercial  law,  and  so  on  ; 
the  physician  chooses  some  subdivision  of  medicine  or 
surgery  ;  the  engineering  profession  shows  the  same  tend- 
ency. 

This  tendency  toward  specialization  is  a  practical  recog- 
nition of  the  importance  of  more  thorough  knowledge  and 
of  the  increasing  labor  or  difficulty  of  obtaining  sufficient 
preparation  for  satisfactory  work  in  all  branches  of  a  given 
profession. 


Specialization  in  Education.  y 

Modern  education  must  take  cognizance  of  this  great 
diversity  of  work  in  life,  and  of  the  greater  need  of  training 
adapted  to  these  diverse  objects.  In  all  departments  of 
human  activity  where  brain  is  more  essential  to  success 
than  muscle  (  and  where  is  it  not  ?  )  the  increasing  differ- 
entiation of  civilization  is  making  more  and  more  exacting 
and  more  difficult  the  determining  of  what  kind  of  educa- 
tion is  adapted  to  produce  the  most  effective  preparation. 
It  becomes  evident  that  we  must  devote  more  years  to  this 
preparation,  or  there  must  be  found  some  way  to  employ 
the  present  average  student  period  to  better  advantage. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  must  face  the  fact  that  the  aver- 
age length  of  human  life  is  not  increasing  ;  nor  does  the 
inherited  capacity  for  education  in  the  human  race  increase 
in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  civilization.  As  another  has 
said,  the  evolution  of  civilization  is  more  rapid  than  that 
of  the  race.  It  does  not  seem  probable  that  the  time  de- 
voted to  schooling  in  lower  and  higher  institutions  can  be 
on  the  average  lengthened  much  beyond  the  present  limits. 
Eventually  a  standing  army  of  students  is  cheaper  to 
maintain  than  a  standing  army  of  soldiers,  as  the  world 
will  sooner  or  later  realize.  But  any  standing  army  of 
non-producers  operates  as  a  heavy  tax  on  the  community, 
and  this  fact  will  militate  against  any  material  extension 
of  that  part  of  life  devoted  to  study  by  the  ever-increasing 
army  of  students  attending  the  higher  schools  of  all  kinds, 
professional,  technical,  or  general. 

It  is  then  necessary,  if  education  is  to  keep  pace  with  the 
march  of  civilization,  that,  by  constantly  improving  meth- 
ods and  plans  of  instruction,  we  shall  learn  better  to  econ- 
omize the  student's  time,  more  thoroughly  to  marshal  his 
capabilities  toward  some  worthy  aim,  more  effectively  to 
render  active  his  potential  energy.  For  whenever  society 
has  invested  the  time  and  the  productive  energy  of  the 
student  she  will  demand  her  reward  in  the  assurance  that 
the  recipient  of  her  bounty  shall  ultimately  render  a  ser- 
vice adequate  to   the  time  and   cost  of  education.     In  no 


10  Specialization  in  Education. 

other  way  can  such  service  be  rendered  than  for  the  stu- 
dent to  so  utilize  his  years  of  preparation  that  he  shall  be 
able  and  willing  to  use  his  powers  and  faculties  for  the 
greatest  possible  good  of  society.  To  faithfully  discharge 
this  obligation  he  must  prepare  himself  to  take  as  high  a 
place  of  usefulness  as  his  native  ability  and  his  opportuni- 
ties render  possible.  That  man  or  woman  who  accom- 
plishes less  of  good  or  useful  work  than  is  possible  to  his  or 
her  ability  and  opportunities  is  to  that  extent  committing 
a  sin  against  society. 

To  further  such  an  aim,  the  student  must  bend  his  ener- 
gies toward  preparing  himself  to  do  in  some  useful  line  of 
activity  the  best  that  in  him  lies.  To  meet  the  increasing 
differentiation  of  life,  specialization  in  education  is  neces- 
sary ;  and  to  achieve  a  maximum  of  efficiency  for  the  indi- 
vidual there  must  be  an  early  adaptation  of  plan  and  of 
methods  to  the  end  to  be  attained.  The  greatest  possible 
service  to  the  best  interests  of  humanity  is  the  ultimate 
goal  of  all  education,  and  to  him  who  brings  to  the  cause  of 
human  progress  full-hearted  and  efficient  service,  will  be 
made  liberal  return  in  gifts  of  wealth,  of  fame,  of  respect, 
or  of  love,  according  to  the  degree  or  the  aim  of  such  serv- 
ice. 

I  should  perhaps  state  more  explicitly  what  I  mean  by 
specialization  in  education.  I  understand  by  that  phrase, 
devoting  the  necessary  portion  of  the  student's  allotted 
time  in  the  University  in  such  a  way  as  will  enable  him  to 
become  to  some  extent  identified  with  some  branch  of  knowl- 
edge or  some  field  of  human  thought.  This  object  implies 
the  laying  of  a  thorough  foundation  in  all  branches  of 
knowledge  clearly  related  to  the  chosen  specialty,  and  the 
cultivation  of  all  those  faculties  and  powers  necessary  to  its 
successful  prosecution.  It  also  implies  the  study  of  the 
specialty  itself  to  the  extent  of  acquiring  a  certain  measure 
of  familiarity  with  its  methods,  and  some  degree  of  master- 
ship. By  mastership  I  do  not  mean  the  complete  familiar- 
ity which  can  only  result  from  a  life-time  of  labor  in  the 


Specialization  in  Education.  11 

chosen  field.  A  specialty  pursued  to  the  extent  possihle 
during  the  time  available  to  most  students  must  indeed 
leave  the  earnest  student  with  a  keen  sense  of  the  narrow 
limits  of  his  knowledge.  Nevertheless,  rightly  pursued,  it 
should  at  least  impart  to  him  a  feeling  of  confidence  as  to 
his  power  to  carry  forward  in  a  worthy  and  intelligent 
manner  the  work  thus  well  begun. 

After  all,  it  is  this  sense  of  power,  this  confidence  in  one's 
ability  to  keep  growing  in  power,  this  consciousness  that  in 
some  line  of  thought  the  mind  is  out  of  leading  strings, 
that  is  one  of  the  greatest  incentives  to  a  high  range  of  life- 
work  ;  and  it  is  the  lack  of  this  confidence  that  often  bars 
the  way  to  the  greatest  usefulness,  and  that  causes  so  many 
men  to  fail  in  utilizing  the  advantages  of  education,  falling 
back  into  stations  which  require  little  or  no  special  prepa- 
ration. 

Knowledge  is  indeed  power  —  not,  however,  the  superfic- 
ial knowledge  of  a  multitude  of  things,  but  the  thorough 
knowledge  of  some  useful  thing.  A  general  knowledge  of 
many  things  adds  to  the  pleasure  of  living  ;  it  is  a  source 
of  profit  and  enjoyment  to  ourselves  and  to  our  friends  ;  it 
enables  us  better  to  understand  the  interests  and  to  sympa- 
thize with  the  aspirations  of  our  neighbors.  It  assists  us 
to  judge  wisety  concerning  many  things  conducive  to  the 
right  conduct  of  life  ;  it  helps  to  make  the  good  citizen  and 
the  good  man.  But  it  will  not  replace  the  ability  to  do 
something  or  other  better  than  most  of  our  neighbors,  some- 
thing for  which  we  have  been  more  thoroughly  educated 
than  they.  Not  every  man  can  achieve  greatness  in  his 
special  line  of  work  ;  not  every  man  can  be  a  Darwin,  an 
Agassiz,  a  Helmholtz,  or  an  Emerson  ;  but  every  man  of 
fair  ability  and  industry  may  so  utilize  his  opportunities 
that  he  may  do  serviceable  work  in  the  line  he  chooses  for 
his  own. 

It  is  no  longer  practicable  to  leave  specialization  till  the 
student  days  are  over.  The  differentiation  of  occupation 
and  the  accumulated  mass  of  special  knowledge  necessary 


12  Specialization  in  Education. 

to  success  is  too  great.  The  beginning  of  specialization 
must  be  made  under  the  direction  of  those  competent  to 
instruct  and  whose  occupation  it  is  to  impart  their  knowl- 
edge. Nor  should  the  benefit  arising  from  specialization 
be  confined  to  the  fortunate  few  who  can  afford  to  prolong 
their  University  work  beyond  the  average  four  years,  though 
these  will  indeed  usually  reap  more  than  proportionate 
advantage.  It  is  better  to  make  some  sacrifice  of  general 
studies  rather  than  to  deprive  the  many  of  the  benefits  that 
arise  from  thus  focusing  their  energies  on  some  congenial 
subject,  to  the  end  that  they  may  acquire  therein  some  con- 
fidence in  their  knowledge  and  their  power. 

The  danger  that  lies  near  specialization  in  the  University 
is  that  which  arises  from  an  education  too  narrow  and  one- 
sided. We  frequently  hear  of  the  evils  of  over-specializa- 
tion, and  of  a  class  of  narrow  and  unpractical  specialists. 
It  is  beyond  question  true  that  a  narrow  specialization, 
begun  prematurely  and  resting  on  too  inadequate  a  founda- 
tion, will  to  a  great  extent  defeat  its  own  objects.  Even  if 
the  student  should  under  some  circumstances  achieve  a  fair 
measure  of  success  in  his  specialty,  he  may  be  too  narrow 
in  his  views  and  out  of  touch  with  the  progress  of  society  — 
particularly  if  he  be  by  nature  a  man  of  narrow  mind. 
But,  even  so,  which  of  the  two  extreme  types  is  worse :  the 
man  of  narrow  training,  lacking  in  the  usual  characteris- 
tics of  the  guild  of  scholars,  out  of  touch  perhaps  with  the 
common  thought  of  the  leaders  of  humanity,  but  capable  of 
doing  useful  work  in  his  special  field  of  labor ;  or  the 
highly  cultured  and  accomplished  college  graduate  with  a 
smattering  of  twenty  -ologies  and  -isms,  but  with  not  enough 
useful  knowledge  of  anything  to  enable  him  to  find  a  place 
in  the  world's  work  —  a  drone  in  the  social  hive  ?  I  ques- 
tion if  there  exists  a  more  essentially  narrow  man  than  this 
latter  type  of  educated  man  — -  for  he  can  never  see  beyond 
the  horizon  of  his  own  shallow  experience,  and  from  his 
self-constructed  throne  he  judges  the  rest  of  mankind  with 
the  complacent    assurance  born   of  a   fancied   superiority. 


Specialization   in  Education.  13 

We  must  discriminate  with  care  between  the  ideas  of  over- 
specialization  and  of  premature  or  unwise  specialization. 
I  do  not  know  that  over-specialization  is  possible  if  the 
subject  be  a  useful  one  and  the  preparation  for  it  suffici- 
ently  broad  and  thorough.  The  higher  we  build  the  pin- 
nacles of  special  knowledge  the  broader  and  deeper  must 
be  the  foundation  that  supports  them,  and  the  more  care- 
fully must  it  be  adapted  to  its  purpose.  Too  limited  a  dif- 
ferentiation is  unwise,  also,  if  the  subject  matter  is  not  of 
importance  commensurate  with  the  time  and  labor  bestowed 
upon  it.  The  University  must  not  admit  to  the  dignity  of 
specialties  subjects  of  trivial  importance,  or  which  do  not 
demand  for  their  preparation  work  of  University  grade.  It 
must  also  insist  that  the  preparation  for  special  studies  be 
sufficiently  broad  and  fundamental.  If  these  conditions  be 
observed,  there  need  be  no  fear  of  the  danger  of  over-gpec- 
ialization.  Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  does  specialization 
rightly  considered  tend  to  exclude  from  education  all  those 
influences  which  go  to  make  the  gentleman  and  the  scholar. 
It  merely  provides  throughout  the  college  course  of  the  stu- 
dent that  "  one  increasing  purpose  runs." 

The  study  of  any  worth}'  subject  as  a  specialty,  be  it  his- 
tory, physics,  law,  biology,  engineering,  or  philology,  if  it 
be  prosecuted  with  the  proper  spirit  and  with  due  reference 
to  all  that  is  demanded  for  a  thorough  mastery  of  the  sci- 
ence, may  contain  within  it  the  germs  of  all  that  is  essen- 
tial to  the  world's  best  citizen,  and  as  to  the  efficiency  of 
such  an  education  neither  the  rostrum,  the  salon,  nor  the 
club  furnishes  the  criterion.  It  is  not  the  curriculum  of 
the  University  that  determines  the  value  of  the  education 
so  much  as  it  is  the  adaptability  of  the  work  to  the  individ- 
ual, the  spirit  of  the  student,  his  zeal,  his  application,  and 
the  thoroughness  of  his  accomplishment.  There  are  many 
studies  that  are  useful  in  cultivating  that  breadth  of  sym- 
pathy and  of  understanding  which  we  call  culture,  but  no 
one  study  is  essential.  Even  the  correct  use  of  one's  native 
language  is  no  absolute  essential,  valuable  and  important 


14  Specialization  in  Education. 

though  it  he.  Particular  studies  have  no  abstract  educa- 
tional value  ;  they  are  only  useful  as  they  find  something 
responsive  in  the  mind  of  the  student.  One  man  finds 
through  the  study  of  history  the  great  lessons  of  humanity, 
and  bends  his  life  to  fulfill  the  laws  of  social  evolution  as 
they  reveal  themselves  to  his  mind.  Another  learns  the 
love  of  truth  and  the  reverence  for  law  through  the  study 
of  the  forces  of  nature. 

I  doubt  if  there  is  any  one  thing  in  the  consideration  of 
higher  education  more  important  for  its  future  develop- 
ment than  that  a  man's  education  must  be  more  carefully 
adapted  to  the  structure  of  his  mind  than  is  his  clothing  to 
his  body.  Specialization  in  education  with  a  variation  cor- 
responding to  the  differentiation  of  modern  civilization 
necessarity  implies  an  elasticity  suited  to  the  mental  capa- 
bilities and  inclination  of  the  student.  It  is  more  difficult 
to  change  the  inherited  and  acquired  mental  constitution 
than  it  is  to  change  the  inherited  and  acquired  physical 
characteristics.  As  we  have  not  yet  the  means  of  measur- 
ing the  mind  of  a  man  as  the  tailor  measures  his  body,  we 
must  be  guided  largely  by  his  own  tastes  or  the  evidence  he 
gives  of  ability  in  one  line  or  another.  Education  can  but 
develop  existent  faculties  and  furnish  the  tools  for  their 
exercise.  It  can  not  create  mental  faculties  ;  it  can  only 
enable  the  man,  by  the  wise  direction  of  his  energies,  to 
make  the  best  use  of  those  powers  he  possesses. 

In  presenting  this  plea  for  more  specialization  than  is 
recognized  in  the  curricula  of  most  American  Universities 
I  desire  not  to  be  misunderstood.  I  believe  that  every  man 
and  woman  should  receive  the  most  complete  education 
that  circumstances  will  permit.  No  one  can  know  too 
much  nor  know  too  thoroughly  whatever  of  good  and  useful 
there  is  to  know.  No  capital  of  money  or  of  time  is  better 
invested  for  one's  own  welfare  or  for  the  good  of  one's  fel- 
lows than  that  invested  in  education.  The  broader  the 
foundation  and  the  more  varied  the  mental  training  the 
greater  are   the  potentialities   for   future   usefulness.      Nor 


Specialization  in  Education.  15 

can  any  man  foresee  what  destiny  lias  in  store,  nor  be  sure 
that  the  vocation  he  aspires  to  in  youth  will  be  the  occupa- 
tion of  his  manhood's  years.  He  is  wise  who  plants  many 
kinds  of  seed  to  provide  harvests  of  satisfaction  for  future 
years.  In  variety  of  knowledge  and  of  interests  are  the 
germs  of  nobler  pleasures  and  greater  usefulness.  Only 
when  a  large  number  of  men  and  women  are  educated  to  a 
position  of  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  needs  of  society, 
and  to  an  unselfish  aspiration  for  the  common  welfare,  can 
the  wisest  leaders  of  thought  and  action  exert  their  due 
influence.     For;  as  educated  men  and  women,  as  has  been 

said, 

"We  are  pledged 
To  understand,  to  live  the  truth  we  know, 
And  help  men  so  to  live  and  understand." 

Recognizing  clearly  these  great  aims  and  responsibilities 
of  higher  education,  and  desiring  to  see  them  fulfilled  to 
the  utmost,  I  yet  believe  that  as  there  is  no  particular  cur- 
riculum essential  to  these  aims  it  is  possible  for  the  student 
to  select  a  course  of  study  which,  while  it  shall  furnish  all 
the  essentials  of  a  liberal  education,  may  nevertheless  bear 
a  clear  relation  to  his  special  line  of  work  ;  and  also  that 
this  ideal  course  must  be  as  varied  in  detail  as  are  the 
minds  of  men  and  the  avocations  of  educated  men.  To  the 
end  that  general  training  be  not  sacrificed  to  the  need  of 
specialization,  and  that  time  may  be  found  for  more  effect- 
ive work  in  the  specialt}7  without  prolonging  the  average 
period  of  study,  the  work  of  the  lower  or  preparatory  schools 
must  be  made  more  thorough  and  effective.  There  should 
be  fewer  mechanical  methods,  and  more  attention  to  indi- 
vidual capacity  and  adaptability.  The  subjects  taught 
need  not  be  many,  but  they  should  be  fundamental  in  their 
departments :  language,  literature,  history,  mathematics, 
natural  or  physical  science.  They  should  be  taught  in 
such  a  way  as  to  hold  the  attention  and  to  develop  to  the 
greatest  possible  degree  the  powers  of  observation,  reason- 
ing, and  reflection.    For  this  more  teachers  and  better  teach- 


16  Specialization  in  Education. 

ers  will  be  needed  —  and  this  applies  to  schools  of  grammar 
and  primary  grade  to  an  even  greater  degree  than  to  high 
schools.  These  improvements  are  certain  to  come,  for  we 
are  but  just  beginning  to  realize  that  money  spent  in 
education  is,  even  from  a  pecuniary  standpoint,  a  paying 
investment  for  society.  More  money  is  wasted  in  every 
civilized  country  from  lack  of  knowledge  than  would  many 
times  pay  for  the  cost  of  proper  education  —  could  we  but 
discover  the  proper  education.  Every  improvement  in  edu- 
cational methods  necessitates  improvements  in  all  depart- 
ments of  education.  Each  new  higher  school  or  university 
is  born  to  new  responsibilities,  every  succeeding  generation 
of  students  to  a  richer  educational  birthright ;  and  that 
institution  which  fails  to  meet  its  responsibilities  or  mis- 
interprets the  direction  in  which  lies  true  development  will 
sooner  or  later  experience  the  inexorableness  of  the  law  of 
human  progress. 

"  It  seeth  everywhere  and  marketh  all: 
Do  right  —  it  recompenseth  !   do  one  wrong  — 
The  equal  retribution  must  be  made, 
Though  Dhakma  tarry  long. 

"  It  knows  not  wrath  nor  pardon;   utter-true 
Its  measures  mete,  its  faultless  balance  weighs ; 
Times  are  as  nought:   tomorrow  it  will  judge, 
Or  after  many  days." 

Finally,  let  us  keep  in  view  that  whatever  be  the  extent 
or  kind  of  training  which  in  any  given  case  or  under  any 
given  circumstances  it  is  practicable  to  impart,  it  is  above 
all  important  to  inculcate  the  spirit  of  earnest  endeavor, 
the  love  of  truth,  and  reverence  for  the  laws  which  underlie 
alike  the  forces  of  nature  and  of  human  life.  Let  us  realize 
also  the  value  of  opportunities  and  leisure  for  quiet  reflec- 
tion, for  unhurried  thinking  —  times  of  respite  from  the 
rush  and  whirl  of  that  mighty  torrent  of  modern  activity 
which  threatens  to  sweep  us  away  like  bubbles  on  its  sur- 
face. We  can  not  attempt  to  know  all  things ;  it  becomes 
us  therefore  to  confine  our  attention  and  to  concentrate  our 


Specialization  in  Education.  17 

energies  upon  fewer  things,  that  opportunity  may  yet  re- 
main for  such  mental  leisure,  with  its  blessed  train  of 
elevating  influences,  to  steal  upon  the  mind,  sweetening  it 
with  the  promise  of  a  golden  age  to  come,  when  intelli- 
gence, integrity,  and  morality  shall  rule  the  earth. 

As  was  written  thirty  years  ago  by  our  California  poet, 

Sill: 

Haste !  haste !  O  laggard,  leave  thy  drowsy  dreamB ! 
Cram  all  thy  brain  with  knowledge;   clutch  and  cram! 
The  earth  is  wide,  the  universe  is  vast  — 
Thou  hast  infinity  to  learn  —  0  haste ! 

Haste  not,  haste  not,  my  soul.     Infinity? 
Thou  hast  eternity  to  learn  it  in. 
Thy  boundless  lesson  through  the  endless  years 
Hath  boundless  leisure.     Run  not  like  a  slave  — 
Sit  like  a  king,  and  see  the  ranks  of  worlds 
Wheel  in  their  cycles  onward  to  thy  feet. 


ADDRESS   TO   THE   GRADUATES. 

David  Starr  Jordan. 

To  the  Class  of  '95  — 

Today  we  give  you  the  last  of  your  childhood's  toys,  the 
college  degree.  The  degree,  with  all  its  titles  and  its  privi- 
leges, is  yours.  But  it  will  not  help  you  much  in  life.  It 
belongs  to  the  babyhood  of  culture.  It  represents  hopes 
and  ideals,  the  promise  of  youth  —  but  men  and  women 
are  judged  by  achievements,  not  by  dreams.  You  will 
value  your  diploma  for  the  growth  to  which  it  bears  wit- 
ness. For  the  warm  friendships  and  sweet  associations  you 
will  value  it  again.  And  still  you  will  prize  it  as  a  card 
of  admission  to  the  noblest  body  of  men  and  women  in  the 
world,  the  band  of  Collegiate  Alumni.  All  this  is  now 
yours.  Lay  the  diploma  away  now  with  the  best  of  your 
youthful  treasures.  Today  you  take  your  place  in  the 
world  of  men.  You  have  reached  your  majority.  One  by 
one,  you  have  passed  the  goals  your  teachers  have  set  for 
you.  The  goals  of  the  future  must  be  of  your  own  choos- 
ing. It  is  yours  now  to  think,  and  therefore  to  act  for 
yourselves.  This  you  can  surely  do.  It  will  be  no  new 
experience.  Your  training  in  the  past  has  been  such,  we 
trust,  that  the  new  freedom  will  be  new  in  name  only.  It 
will  come  to  you  with  no  shock  of  surprise,  for  in  freedom 
you  have  been  trained  for  freedom. 

You  of  the  Class  of  1895  have  occupied  a  unique  position 
toward  this  University.  You  were  the  first,  the  band  of 
pioneers.    It  has  been  yours  to  lead,  never  to  follow.    Those 


20  Address  to  the  Graduates. 

who  in  future  years  are  drawn  to  these  halls  may  weigh 
and  compare,  balance  privilege  with  privilege,  opportunity 
with  opportunity  ;  their  choice  will  be  governed  by  influ- 
ences which  in  part  have  come  out  from  you.  They  will 
measure  the  future  by  the  past.  For  you  there  was  no 
past.  You  trusted  the  forces  the  University  seemed  to 
represent.  You  have  given  your  best  years  of  training  to 
this  institution  when  it  had  no  record  of  achievement,  no 
wealth  of  tradition.  You  have  been  University  makers. 
The  highest  value  of  tradition  lies  in  the  making  of  it ;  the 
noblest  wealth  is  the  wealth  of  promise.  It  is  the  place  of 
the  pioneer  to  make  for  the  future,  not  to  share  in  the  past. 

When  nearly  four  years  ago  we  came  for  the  first  time 
together  in  this  quadrangle,  you  with  your  teachers  were 
the  University.  The  Universit}'  lives  in  the  changing  units 
that  pass  through  its  halls.  The  life  of  its  beginning  was 
yours  alone.  On  that  first  day  of  October,  1891  —  a  day 
memorable  to  all  of  us,  at  least  —  it  was  my  fortune  to  say 
these  words  to  you  : 

"It  is  for  us  as  teachers  and  students  in  the  University's 
first  year  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  school  which  may  last 
as  long  as  human  civilization.  Ours  is  the  youngest  of  the 
universities,  but  it  is  heir  to  the  wisdom  of  all  the  ages,  and 
with  this  inheritance  it  has  the  promise  of  a  rapid  and 
sturdy  growth.  Our  University  has  no  history  to  fall  back 
upon  ;  no  memories  of  great  teachers  haunt  its  corridors  ; 
in  none  of  its  rooms  appear  the  traces  which  show  where 
a  great  man  has  ever  lived  or  worked.  No  tender  asso- 
ciations cling,  ivy-like,  to  its  fresh  new  walls.  It  is  hal- 
lowed by  no  traditions ;  it  is  hampered  by  none.  Its 
finger-post  still  points  forward.  Traditions  and  associa- 
tions it  is  ours  to  make.  From  our  work  the  future  of  the 
University  will  grow  as  a  splendid  lily  from  a  modest  bulb. 
But  the  future  with  its  glories  and  its  responsibilities  will 
be  in  other  hands.  It  is  ours  at  the  beginning  to  give 
the  University  its  form,  its  tendencies,  its  customs.  The 
power  of  precedent  will  cause  to  be  repeated  over  and  over 


Address  to  the   Graduates.  21 

again  everything  that  we  do  —  our  errors  as  well  as  our 
wisdom.  It  becomes  us,  then,  to  begin  the  work  modestly, 
as  under  the  eye  of  the  coming  ages.  We  must  lay  the 
foundations  broad  and  firm,  so  as  to  give  full  support  to 
whatever  edifice  the  future  may  build." 

Four  years  is  a  short  time  as  we  measure  history,  even 
the  history  of  universities.  But  it  is  a  long  time  when  we 
consider  all  that  can  take  place  in  it.  These  four  years 
have  been  hallowed  by  the  noblest  courage  and  devotion 
you  and  I  have  ever  known.  The  self-sacrifice  which  we 
know,  though  the  world  does  not,  and  by  virtue  of  which 
we  are  together  here  today,  has  left  its  mark  on  every  one 
of  you.  You  have  learned  to  know  how  wealth  and  power 
can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  helpfulness.  In  helpfulness 
alone  can  wealth  or  power  find  consecration. 

Again  these  four  years  are  long  when  measured  by  the 
growing  thoughts  of  growing  minds.  They  have  been  long 
enough  for  the  University  to  place  on  you  its  ineffaceable 
stamp.  Men  and  women  of  Stanford  you  shall  be  so  long 
as  you  live,  and  longer  —  so  long  as  your  memory  shall 
last.  The  beloved  name  of  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  has  fallen 
to  you  as  an  heritage.  In  the  future  it  shall  stand  for 
what  you  make  it.  It  has  been  yours  to  help  frame  once 
for  all  its  definition.  You  have  placed  your  mark  on  the 
University,  and  the  generations  that  follow  cannot  change 
this  mark,  they  can  only  deepen  it.  In  your  foot-steps  the 
students  of  the  future  must  stand.  You  are  the  pioneers. 
Wherever  you  may  go,  in  whatever  situation  you  may  be 
placed,  you  will  embody  the  spirit  of  the  Stanford  Univer- 
sity. 

In  these  four  years  we  have  made  some  history,  formed 
some  associations,  uttered  some  distinctive  word.  What 
shall  our  message  be  ?  I  can  not  answer  this  question. 
No  one  can  answer  it  now,  for  the  message  must  be  ex- 
pressed by  each  one  of  you  in  his  own  way,  and  to  the 
people  whom  the  incidents  and  happenings  of  life  shall 
bring  about  him  as  his  neighbors. 


22  Address  to  the  Graduates. 

.Some  part  of  this  message  lies  in  the  words  of  Emerson  : 
"  The  best  political  economy  is  the  care  and  culture  of 
men."  The  care  and  culture  of  men  does  not  mean  their 
coddling,  but  their  training  —  not  help  from  without,  but 
growth  from  within.  The  harsh  experience  of  centuries 
has  shown  that  men  are  not  made  by  easy  processes.  Char- 
acter is  a  hard}-  plant  ;  it  thrives  best  where  the  north 
wind  tempers  the  sunshine. 

The  life  of  civilized  man  is  no  simple  art,  no  auto- 
matic process.  To  make  life  easy  is  to  bring  it  to  failure. 
The  civilization  to  which  we  are  born  makes  heavy  de- 
mands upon  those  who  take  part  in  it.  Its  rights  are  all 
duties  ;  its  privileges  are  all  responsibilities.  Its  penalties 
are  terrible  upon  those  who  do  not  make  their  responsibili- 
ties good.  And  these  responsibilities  are  not  individual 
alone.  They  fall  upon  all  who  are  bound  together  in  social 
or  industrial  alliance.  If  we  are  to  bear  one  another's  bur- 
dens, we  must  see  that  no  unnecessary  burdens  are  laid 
upon  us  by  our  indifference  or  ignorance.  There  is  no 
safety  for  the  Republic,  no  safety  for  the  individual  man 
for  whom  the  Republic  exists,  so  long  as  he  or  his  fellows 
are  untrained  or  not  trained  aright. 

So  there  is  no  virtue  in  educational  systems  unless  these 
systems  meet  the  needs  of  the  individual.  It  is  not  the 
ideal  man  or  the  average  man  who  is  to  be  trained,  it  is 
the  particular  man,  as  the  forces  of  Nature  have  made  him. 
His  own  qualities  determine  his  needs.  "  A  child  is  better 
unborn  than  untaught."  A  child,  however  educated,  is 
still  untaught  if  by  his  teaching  we  have  not  emphasized 
his  individual  character,  if  we  have  not  strengthened  his 
will  and  its  guide  and  guardian,  the  mind. 

The  essence  of  manhood  lies  in  the  growth  of  the  power 
of  choice.  In  the  varied  relations  of  life  the  power  to 
choose  means  the  duty  of  choosing  right.  To  choose  the 
right  one  must  have  the  wit  to  know  it  and  the  will  to  de- 
mand it.  In  the  long  run,  in  small  things  as  in  large, 
wrong  choice  is  punished  by  death.     No  republic  can  live. 


» 
Address  to  the  Graduates.  23 

no  man  can  live,  in  a  republic  in  which  wrong  is  the  re- 
peated choice  either  of  the  people  or  of  the  State. 

All  education  must  be  individual,  fitted  to  individual 
needs.  That  which  is  not  is  unworthy  of  the  name.  A 
misfit  education  is  no  education  at  all.  Every  man  that 
lives  has  a  right  to  some  form  of  higher  education.  For 
there  is  no  man  that  would  not  be  made  better  and 
stronger  by  continuous  training.  I  do  not  mean,  of  course, 
that  the  conventional  college  education  of  today  could  be 
taken  by  every  man  to  his  advantage.  Still  less  could 
the  average  man  use  the  conventional  college  education 
of  any  past  era.  Higher  education  has  seemed  to  be  the 
need  of  the  few,  because  it  has  been  so  narrow.  It  was 
made  for  the  few.  Its  type  was  fixed  and  pre-arranged, 
and  those  whose  minds  it  did  not  fit  were  looked  upon  by 
the  colleges  as  educational  outcasts.  The  rewards  of  inves- 
tigation, the  pleasures  of  high  thinking,  the  charms  of  har- 
mony, have  never  yet  been  for  the  multitude.  To  the  mul- 
titude they  must  be  accessible  in  the  future.  Not  as  a  gift, 
for  nothing  worth  having  was  ever  a  gift.  Rather  as  a 
right  to  be  taken  by  those  who  can.  To  yield  the  higher 
education  that  humanity  needs  the  college  must  be  broad 
as  humanity.  No  spark  of  talent  man  may  possess  should 
be  outside  its  fostering  care.  To  fit  man  into  schemes  of 
education  has  been  the  mistake  of  the  past.  To  fit  educa- 
tion to  man  is  the  work  of  the  future. 

The  traditions  of  higher  education  in  America  had  their 
origin  in  social  conditions  very  different  from  ours.  In  the 
Golden  Age  of  Greece  each  free  man  stood  on  the  back  of 
nine  slaves.  The  freedom  which  might  have  come  to  the 
ten  was  the  birthright  of  the  one.  To  train  the  tenth  man 
was  the  function  of  the  early  university.  A  part  of  this 
training  must  be  in  the  arts  by  which  the  nine  were  kept 
in  subjection. 

The  Universities  of  Paris  and  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
rose  for  the  purpose  of  training  the  lord  and  the  priest. 
And  to  these  schools  and  their  successors  as  time  went  on 


24  Address  to  the   Graduates. 

fell  the  duty  of  training  the  gentleman  and  the  clergyman. 
Only  in  our  day  has  it  heen  recognized  that  the  common 
man  had  part  or  lot  in  higher  education  ;  for  now  he  has 
come  into  his  own,  and  he  demands  that  he  too  ma}'  be 
noble  and  gentle.  His  own  lord  and  king  he  is  already, 
and  in  the  next  century  we  shall  see  the  common  man  in- 
stalled as  his  own  priest.  And  through  higher  education 
he  must  gain  fitness  for  his  work,  if  he  gains  it  at  all.  And 
he  must  gain  it,  for  the  future  of  civilization  is  in  his 
hands.  The  world  can  not  afford  to  let  him  fail.  All  the 
ages  have  looked  forward  to  the  common  man  as  their  "  heir 
apparent."  The  whole  past  of  humanity  is  staked  on  his 
success.  The  old  traditions  are  not  sufficient  for  him.  The 
narrow  processes  by  which  gentlemen  were  trained  in  medi- 
aeval Oxford  are  not  adequate  to  the  varied  demands  of  the 
man  of  the  twentieth  century.  Heir  to  all  the  ages  he 
must  be  —  and  there  are  ages  since,  as  there  were  before 
the  tasks  set  in  these  schools  became  stereotyped  as  culture. 
The  need  of  cboice  has  become  a  thousand-fold  greater  with 
the  extension  of  human  knowledge  and  human  power.  The 
need  of  choosing  right  is  steadily  growing  more  and  more 
imperative.  If  the  common  man  is  to  be  his  own  lord  and 
his  own  priest  in  these  strenuous  days,  his  strength  must 
be  as  great,  his  consecration  as  intense,  as  it  was  with  those 
who  were  his  rulers  in  ruder  and  less  trying  times.  The 
osmosis  of  classes  is  still  going  on.  By  its  silent  force  it 
has  "  pulled  down  the  mighty  from  their  seats  and  has  ex- 
alted them  of  low  degree."  Again,  educate  our  rulers  ;  for 
we  find  that  they  need  it.  They  have  not  yet  in  the  aggre- 
gate the  brains  nor  the  conscience  nor  the  force  of  will  that 
fits  them  for  the  task  the  fates  have  thrown  upon  them. 

If  the  civilization  of  the  one  is  shared  b}r  the  ten,  it  must 
increase  ten-fold  in  amount.  If  it  does  not,  the  Golden 
Age  it  seems  to  represent  must  pass  away.  To  hold  the 
civilization  we  enjoy  today  is  the  work  of  higher  education. 
Every  moment  we  feel  it  slipping  from  our  hands.  Hence 
every  moment  we  must  strive  for  a  fresh  hold.     "  Eternal 


Address  to  the  Graduates.  25 

vigilance,"  it  was  said  of  old,  "is  the  price  of  liberty." 
And  this  is  what  was  meant.  The  perpetuation  of  free  in- 
stitutions rests  with  free  men.  The  masses,  the  mobs  of 
men,  are  never  free.  Hence  the  need  of  the  hour  is  to  break 
up  the  masses.  Let  them  be  masses  no  more,  but  living 
men  and  women.  The  work  of  higher  education  is  to  draw 
forth  from  the  multitude  the  man.  To  tyranny,  confusion 
is  succeeding  ;  and  the  remedy  for  confusion  is  in  the 
growth  of  men  who  cannot  be  confused. 

This  University,  more  than  any  other  in  the  world,  has 
recognized  the  need  of  the  individual  student  as  the  reason 
for  its  existence.  It  has  held  that  if  we  are  to  make  men 
and  women  out  of  boys  and  girls,  it  will  be  as  individuals, 
not  as  classes.  The  best  field  of  corn  is  that  in  which  the 
individual  stalks  are  most  strong  and  most  fruitful.  Class 
legislation  has  always  proved  pernicious  and  ineffective, 
whether  in  a  university  or  in  a  state.  The  strongest  nation 
is  that  in  which  the  individual  man  is  most  helpful  and 
most  independent.  The  best  school  is  that  which  exists  for 
the  individual  student.  Our  University  is  not  an  aggrega- 
tion of  colleges,  departments,  or  classes  —  it  is  built  up  of 
young  men  and  women.  The  student  is  its  unit.  Its  basal 
idea  of  education  is  that  each  student  should  devote  his 
time  and  strength  to  what  is  best  for  him  ;  that  no  force  of 
tradition,  no  rule  of  restraint,  no  bait  of  a  degree,  should 
swerve  any  one  from  his  own  best  educational  path.  As 
Professor  Anderson  has  said  :  "  The  way  to  educate  a  man 
is  to  set  him  at  work  ;  the  way  to  get  him  to  work  is  to  in- 
terest him  ;  the  way  to  interest  him  is  to  vitalize  his  task 
by  relating  it  to  some  form  of  reality."  No  man  was  ever 
well  trained  whose  own  soul  was  not  wrought  into  the  pro- 
cess. No  student  was  ever  brought  to  any  worthy  work 
except  by  his  own  consent. 

So  the  University  must  not  drive,  but  lead.  Nor  in  the 
long  run  should  it  even  lead,  for  the  training  of  the  will  is 
effected  by  the  exercise  of  self-guidance.  The  problem  of 
human  development  is  to  bring  men  into  the  right  path  by 
their  own  realization  that  it  is  good  to  walk  therein. 


26  Address  to  the  Graduates. 

The  student  must  feel  with  every  day's  work  that  it  has 
some  place  in  the  formation  of  his  character.  His  char- 
acter he  must  form  for  himself,  but  higher  education  gives 
him  the  materials.  His  character  gathers  consecration  as 
the  work  goes  on  if  he  can  see  for  himself  the  place  of  each 
element  in  his  training.  Its  value  he  has  tested  and  he 
knows  that  it  is  good,  and  its  results  he  learns  to  treasure 
accordingly. 

Individualism  in  education  is  no  discovery  of  our  times. 
It  was  by  no  means  invented  at  Palo  Alto,  neither  was  it 
born  in  Harvard  nor  in  Michigan.  The  need  of  it  is 
written  in  the  heart  of  man.  It  has  found  recognition 
wherever  the  "  care  and  culture  "  of  man  has  been  taken 
seriously. 

A  Japanese  writer,  Uchimura,  says  this  of  education  in 
old  Japan  : 

"  We  were  not  taught  in  classes  then.  The  grouping  of 
soul-bearing  human  beings  into  classes,  as  sheep  upon 
Australian  farms,  was  not  known  in  our  old  schools.  Our 
teachers  believed,  I  think  instinctively,  that  man  (persona) 
is  unclassifiable,  that  he  must  be  dealt  with  personally  — 
i.  e.,  face  to  face  and  soul  to  soul.  So  they  schooled  us  one 
by  one,  each  according  to  his  idiosyncracies,  physical,  men- 
tal, and  spiritual.  They  knew  every  one  of  us  by  his  name. 
And  as  asses  were  never  harnessed  with  horses,  there  was 
but  little  danger  of  the  latter  being  beaten  down  into  stu- 
pidity, or  the  former  driven  into  valedictorians'  graves.  In 
this  respect,  therefore,  our  old-time  teachers  in  Japan 
agreed  with  Socrates  and  Plato  in  their  theory  of  education. 

"  So  naturally  the  relation  between  teachers  and  students 
was  the  closest  one  possible.  We  never  called  our  teachers 
by  that  unapproachable  name,  Professor.  We  called  them 
Sensei,  men  born  before,  so  named  because  of  their  prior 
birth,  not  only  in  respect  of  the  time  of  their  appearance  in 
this  world,  which  was  not  always  the  case,  but  also  of  their 
coming  to  the  understanding  of  the  Truth. 

"  It  was  this,  our  idea  of  relationship   between   teacher 


Address  to  the   Graduates.  27 

and  student,  which  made  some  of  us  to  comprehend  at  once 
the  intimate  relation  between  the  Master  and  the  disciples 
which  we  found  in  the  Christian  Bible.  When  we  found 
written  therein  that  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  master, 
nor  the  servant  above  his  lord,  or  that  the  good  shepherd 
giveth  his  life  for  his  sheep,  and  other  similar  sayings,  we 
took  them  almost  instinctively  as  things  known  to  us  long 
before." 

Thus  it  was  in  old  Japan.  Thus  should  it  be  in  new 
America.  In  such  manner  do  the  oldest  ideas  forever 
renew  their  youth,  when  these  ideas  are  based  not  on  tradi- 
tion nor  convention,  but  in  the  nature  of  Man. 

The  best  care  and  culture  of  man  is  not  that  which  re- 
strains his  weakness,  but  that  which  gives  play  to  his 
strength.  We  should  work  for  the  positive  side  of  life.  To 
get  rid  of  vice  and  folly  is  to  let  strength  grow  in  their 
place. 

The  great  danger  in  Democracy  is  the  seeming  predomi- 
nance of  the  weak.  The  strong  and  the  true  seem  to  be 
never  in  the  majority.  The  politician  who  knows  the  signs 
of  the  times  understands  the  ways  of  majorities.  He  knows 
fully  the  weakness  of  the  common  man.  Injustice,  vio- 
lence, fraud,  and  corruption  are  all  expressions  of  this 
weakness.  These  do  not  spring  from  competition,  but  from 
futile  efforts  to  stifle  competition.  Competition  means  fair 
play.     Unfair  play  is  the  confession  of  weakness. 

The;  strength  of  the  common  rnan  our  leaders  do  not 
know.  Ignorant,  venal,  and  vacillating  the  common  man 
is  at  his  worst,  but  he  is  also  earnest,  intelligent,  and  deter- 
mined. To  know  him  at  his  best  is  the  essence  of  states- 
manship. His  power  for  good  may  be  used  as  well  as  his 
power  for  evil.  It  was  this  trust  of  the  common  man  that 
made  the  statesmanship  of  Lincoln.  And  under  such  a 
leader  the  common  man  ceases  to  be  common.  To  know 
strength  is  the  secret  of  power.  To  work  with  the  best  in 
human  nature  is  to  have  the  fates  on  your  side.  He  who 
strikes  as  the}^  strike  has  the  force  of  Infinity  in  his  blows. 
He  who  defies  them  wields  a  club  of  air. 


t  \d  \  i-  r-    m  i  v. 


28  Address  to  the   Graduates. 

"A  flaw  in  thought  an  inch  long,"  says  a  Chinese  poet, 
"  leaves  a  trace  of  a  thousand  miles."  If  collective  action 
is  to  be  safe,  the  best  thought  of  the  best  men  must  control 
it.  It  is  the  ideal  of  statesmanship  to  bring  these  best 
thoughts  into  unison.  The  flaw  in  the  thought  of  each  one 
will  be  corrected  by  the  clear  vision  of  others.  And  this 
order  and  freedom,  clear  vision  and  clean  acting,  we  have 
the  right  to  expect  from  you.  Knowledge  is  power,  because 
thought  is  convertible  into  action.  Ignorance  is  weakness, 
because  without  clearness  of  purpose  action  can  never  be 
effective. 

The  best  political  economy  is  the  care  and  culture  of 
men.  The  best  spent  money  of  the  present  is  that  which  is 
used  for  the  future.  The  force  which  is  used  on  the  present 
is  spent  or  wasted.  That  which  is  used  on  the  future  is 
repaid  with  compound  interest.  It  is  for  you  to  show,  that 
effort  for  the  future  of  which  you  are  the  subjects  is  not 
wasted  effort.  That  you  will  do  so  we  have  no  shadow  of 
doubt.  If  its  influence  on  you  and  you  only  were  the 
whole  of  the  life  of  the  University  we  love,  it  would  be 
worth  all  it  has  cost.  The  money  and  the  effort,  the  faith 
and  devotion  these  halls  have  seen,  would  not  be  wasted. 
It  will  abide  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  so  long  as  California 
shall  live  the  Leland  Stanford  Jr.  University  will  be  justi- 
fied in  you.  You  are  her  children  —  first-born,  and  it 
may  be  best-beloved  —  and  in  the  ever-widening  circle  of 
your  work  she  shall  rejoice.  For  your  influence  will  be 
positive  and  therefore  effective.  You  will  stand  for  the 
love  of  man  and  the  love  of  truth.  No  one  can  love  man 
aright  who  does  not  love  truth  better.  And  in  the  end 
these  loves  are  alike  in  essence. 

The  foundation  of  a  university,  as  Professor  Howard  has 
told  us,  may  be  an  event  greater  in  the  history  of  the  world 
than  the  foundation  of  a  state.  By  its  life  is  it  justified. 
The  state  at  the  best  exists  for  the  men  and  women  that 
compose  it.  Its  needs  can  never  be  the  noblest,  its  aims 
never  the  highest,  because  it  can  never  rise  above  the  pres- 


Address  to  the  Graduates.  29 

ent.  Its  limit  of  action  is  that  which  now  is.  The  uni- 
versity stands  for  the  future.  It  deals  with  the  possibilities 
of  men,  with  the  strength  and  virtue  of  men  which  is  not 
realized.  Its  foundation  is  the  co-operation  of  the  strong, 
its  function  to  convert  weakness  into  strength.  The  uni- 
versities of  Europe  have  shaped  the  civilization  of  the 
world.  The  universities  of  the  world  will  shape  the  growth 
of  man  so  long  as  civilization  shall  abide. 

To  the  care  and  culture  of  men  and  women  this  Univer- 
sity has  been  dedicated.  As  I  said  to  you  when  we  came 
together  so  I  say  to  you  again  : 

"  The  Golden  Age  of  California  begins  when  its  gold  is 
used  for  purposes  like  this.  From  such  deeds  must  rise  the 
new  California  of  the  coming  century,  no  longer  the  Cali- 
fornia of  the  gold  seeker  and  the  adventurer,  but  the  abode 
of  high-minded  men  and  women,  trained  in  the  wisdom  of 
the  ages  and  imbued  with  the  love  of  nature,  the  love  of 
man,  and  the  love  of  God.  And  bright  indeed  will  be  the 
future  of  our  State  if,  in  the  usefulness  of  the  University, 
every  hope  and  prayer  of  the  founders  shall  be  realized." 


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